Penguin shrugs off storm, lays an egg

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, September 29, 2005

As Hurricane Rita hurled violent waves and howling winds at Galveston last week, a penguin at Moody Gardens was unruffled enough to lay an egg inside the glass aquarium pyramid.

It is Moody's first Gentoo penguin egg, a triumph for zookeeers even under ordinary circumstances, and it's expected to hatch around Halloween if all goes well.

Four biologists stayed behind during the storm to take care of the animals at Moody Gardens, which relied on power generators to keep the animal exhibits at the right temperatures and the water in the fish tanks circulating.

The penguins, native to South Georgia Island off Antartica, were comfortable enough during the storm to continue breeding, but a few other animals did not handle the stress so well.

Moody Gardens lost 13 fish, an endangered snake known as a Wagler'sViper and a South American bird called a Piping Guan. Although it's too soon to say why the animals died, the biologists believe the stress of moving animals to safer places within Moody Gardens at least contributed to the deaths.

Some of the animals were already ailing, but the biologists felt that the risk of moving them was less than the risk from the storm, according to Jerri Hamacheck, a spokeswoman for Moody.

Last month Hurricane Katrina wiped out thousands of sea creatures at New Orleans' aquarium after the staff was forced to flee from floods and the backup generator's air filter became clogged and crippled.

One of Katrina's refugees, an endangered green sea turtle named King Midas, was sent to Moody Gardens, where he rode out Rita without incident.

Moody Gardens chose its pyramid design at least in part because of its resistance to heavy winds, said Hamacheck. The aquarium pyramid where the penguins reside is made of glass built to withstand hurricane-force winds, with metal inside, she said.